5 Worst Chelsea Managers Ever in Club History | Ranked

The English Premier League club, Chelsea is without a doubt one of the most successful clubs in English and European football, with six English Premier League titles, eight FA Cups, five League Cups, and four Community Shield titles domestically. Meanwhile, their success in Europe marks four European triumphs, two UEFA Champions League trophies, and as many Europa League trophies in their cabinet.

Since, the start of the Roman Abramovich era in 2003, the West London club has seen the world’s most legendary players and managers practice their profession and capture glory at Stamford Bridge, representing the Lions. Legendary English defender Johny Terrt, midfield maestro Frank Lampard, and iconic African striker Didier Drogba are only a few names on the eminent list.

Whereas, elite modern-day tacticians like Claudio Ranieri, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelloti, Thomas Tuchel, and Antonio Conte have managed the Blues from the touchlines as the head coach. However, in recent years after Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital bought the ownership of the club, they have functioned under five different managers within the span of two years.

The Blues have seemingly settled with newly appointed Italian boss Enzo Maresca from Leicester City, after miraculously guiding the Foxes to the Premier League from the EFL Championship. And, the new look Chelsea under the 44-year-old tactician has shown a sense of brilliance on the pitch playing as a unit with unified vision and determination.

However, the subject of this article is quite the opposite, as we are going to list the 5 worst Chelsea managers ever in the club’s history. Also to be noted, the list is based on win percentage and the managers should have been in charge of more than three games as interim or full-time.

Also Read: List of Longest serving Premier League Managers in History

5. Andre Villas-Boas – 50%

In 2011, the Blues splashed a record fee of £13.3m fee to bring the young and established Portuguese manager, Andre Villas-Boas to West London from Porto. In the 2010/11 season, he led Porto to claim the Portuguese League title, Portuguese Cup and UEFA Europa League to land job a in the English Premier League. Despite a perfect start in the pre-season and league campaign, Chelsea fell down from the top four and the players were struggling to adapt his tactics.

Following a 3-1 defeat to Napoli in the first leg of the Round of 16 clash in the Champions League and a narrow 1-0 loss to West Brom Albion marked his departure after only managing 40 games across all competitions.

4 Graham Potter – 39%

Graham Potter was the first manager appointed under the ownership of Todd Boehly, coming on the back of a successful tenure with fellow English club Brighton & Hove Albion in September 2022. His ability to flourish and develop young players caught the eye of the Blues, however, the English managers could not live up to expectations failing to take off under the immense pressure of big-money signings and lack of forehand experience in managing an elite club.

Within, just six months of his time, Potter was relieved from his role concluding his struggles at Stamford Bridge with a win percentage of 39%, notably, he had led Chelsea to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

3. Guus Hiddink – 37%

The Dutch manager has worked with Chelsea on two spells, during his first spell he was brought in as an interim to succeed Luiz Felipe Scholar as he was the trusted tactician option for the English club whenever any sacking happened during Abramovich’s ownership reign. Guus Hiddink arrived for his second spell in West London after the departure of Jose Mourinho in the 2015/16 season at the business end of the 2015/16 season.

Even though, he had a low win percentage he helped the club to stabilize and attain a decent finish from 16th place to 10th place finish in the league and maintained a 12-game unbeaten streak though it wasn’t as successful relative to the first stint.

Also Read: Real Madrid longest serving Managers in club’s history | Ranked

2. Glenn Hoddle – 33%

Glenn Hoddle was in charge of the Blues from 1993 to 1996, he joined a player-manager role and in his first season, the club reached to FA Cup final but suffered a 4-0 defeat to Man United. Nonetheless, he guided the club to secure a spot in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup marking their return to European football after twenty years of absence. During the 1994/95 seasons, Hoddle steered Chelsea to the semi-final of the UEFA Cup Winners Cup and earned a reputation after bringing in big players such as Ruud Gullit, Mark Hughes, Mark Stein Dan Petrescu, Gavin Peacock and David Rocastle.

These steps raised Chelsea’s profile from a mid-table side to one of the best in English football. He struggled to take the club beyond that to achieve the top-of-table finishes and recorded only 33% wins in a total of 149 matches in all competitions Chelsea only won 49 of them, tasting defeats in 50 matches and as many defeats.

1. Frank Lampard – 9%

Chelsea’s greatest player on the field still holds the title of their all-time top goal scorer and assist provider and one of the leading appearances makers for the English giants. Unfortunately, Frank Lampard’s managerial spell with the club did not quite resemble his glories as a player in a managerial role. He was the coach in charge of the club twice, most recently when Graham Potter was sacked in 2023 as Todd Boehly & Clearlake Captial put their faith in Lampard’s unproven ability.

Consequently, Chelsea endured to worst-ever league finish in the bottom half of the table since 1996, recording an all-time lowest goal and points during the entire Premier League history with a 9% win rate. Thus, the former midfielder ranks as the worst Chelsea manager in history to have managed more than 11 matches.

Also Read: 15 Chelsea Managers from the Abramovich Era to Present Day

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